1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an aircraft survivability system, and more particularly to a complementary threat sensor data fusion method and apparatus.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
In the prior art, individual aircraft survivability equipment (ASE) sensors are used as stand-alone systems. The use of such systems in a stand-alone manner results in high pilot workloads. Further, in such systems only a limited amount of threat data is presented to the pilot. Data provided by various ASE subsystems such as pulsed radar jammers, continuous wave (CW) radar jammers and missile approach detectors have previously not been used to provide a comprehensive and coherent picture of the threat environment. Thus prior art systems often do not present adequate data in a readily understood format to enable the pilot to quickly and completely assess a given threat environment.
Prior art sensors standing alone in electronics warfare sensor systems suffer a number of drawbacks. Because they are stand alone, the quality of threat identification is not as good as it would be if the sensors were integrated as disclosed in the present invention. The overall threat detection and ability to counter RF guided missiles and to prevent threats is degraded by the stand alone nature of prior art electronic warfare systems. Therefore it is the motivation of the invention to overcome the inherent performance limitations of stand alone electronic warfare sensors by providing a complementary threat sensor data fusion method and apparatus.